Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2005 08:41:48 -0800 (PST) From: dereck <dereckhaskins@yahoo.com> To: Roger 'Rocky' Vetterberg <listsub@401.cx>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Cc: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Instead of freebsd.com, why not... Message-ID: <20050212164148.92186.qmail@web50801.mail.yahoo.com> In-Reply-To: <420E27DD.1090200@401.cx>
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> So far, I have not seen one single valid argument > against a > freebsd.com website or a new logo, so I side with > the people that > wants some changes to happen in this one. > I'm with Roger here. It is time for a change, and perhaps a smaller, but "business friendly" image on the MAIN site. The website as it is is much too busy and confusing. Actually, I would not mind moving the current website over to "freebsd_tech_user" or something that clearly targets BSD technical users. But I work for a medium-sized, proprietary software company. I would _NEVER_ send even competent WIN32 people to the current FreeBSD site for them to evaluate the OS - the confusing structure and "face" of the site is sure to turn them off. Even asking "basic" questions in the Search function doesn't work cleanly - instead hundreds of manual links are returned. A clear and short "Who is using it" and "Why it would help YOUR business" page would be better than what we have now. I just don't understand the arguments of those who don't want change here. Is this not a question of "survival" in some sense? OBSD went through a logo change some time ago, and I would argue that this change was very successful. We've (IMHO) got to get the businesses who are looking at Open Source to consider FreeBSD. This means making the website "friendly." This is simply so they'll move to the next logical step to ask "who is using it already?". And this is getting critical, people - Sun is making SOLARIS free and will release the OS for _anyone_ to use in coming weeks. In the case of "OpenSolaris" a business doesn't even have to ask that "next question", as millions of computers run Solaris worldwide - Wall Street brokerages use it everywhere, and MLB.com uses it prominently, to name a couple of examples. The heart of the matter is whether we will continue to target the uber-geeks of the world and be happy with a tiny niche, or whether we will make FreeBSD what it should be - _the_ standard against which other *NIX OS clones measure themselves. Appearances do matter in this case, and the current website should be moved over to target the few of us who are already committed. My 2 cents. dereck
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